Monday, November 10, 2014

Veterans Day -- Tuesday -- is the national holiday to
remember veterans and be thankful for their service.

All veterans -- like all humans -- pass away. Some in their
old age, some in their youth; some are buried in a marked place, others not.

One fitting place to honor their service is SalisburyNationalCemetery
-- which began as 18 mass graves for Union soldiers who died at the POW camp there
during the Civil War. It has been an active cemetery ever since; historical markers and rows upon rows of
markers are reminders of the duty and sacrifice of those buried there.

For a different experience, visit the historic graveyard at
St. Luke's Episcopal Church, in Lincolnton, and look for the marker honoring
Stephen Dodson Ramseur, who died 150 years ago last month, at age 27.

The Lincolnton native, born in 1837, was an 1860 graduate of
West Point who enlisted in the Confederate army before North Carolina voted to secede. In three
years of hard fighting, he was wounded several times and rose through the ranks.
In 1862, at age 25 and despite having an arm mangled and paralyzed during that
year's Peninsula Campaign in eastern Virginia, Ramseur became the youngest general at that time in the
Confederate army.

Brig. Gen. Ramseur went on to fight at the battles of
Chancellorsville and Gettysburg,
and in the May 1864 bloodbath called the Wilderness Campaign. He was promoted
to major general and fought at Cold
Harbor, Va.

Portraits of Ramseur
increasingly show the conflict taking its toll on his body. (They're at the top
of this post.)

He was mortally wounded while on horseback -- shot through
the lungs -- rallying his troops, at the
Battle of Cedar Creek, Oct. 19, 1864 and died the following day in Union
custody.

According to a state biography, Ramseur had learned the day
before the battle that his wife, whom he married the year before, had given
birth to a daughter.

Another irony: The battle was an impromptu, drawn-weapons
reunion of West Point classmates and friends: Confederate
Gen. Tom Rosser, U.S. Maj. Wesley Merritt, U.S. Col. Alexander Pennington, U.S. Capt.Henry Du Pont... and U.S. Gen. George Custer.

Custer, who had been the class clown at West
Point, went looking for Ramseur's ambulance after the Battle of Cedar Creek,
found it, and ordered it to be sent to the
headquarters of victorious U.S. Gen. Phil Sheridan.

Ramseur's West Point pals -- his Union opponents -- were with him when he died; it is said that Custer
arranged for Ramseur's body to be shipped home to Lincolnton.

An article at historynet.com tells of their friendship -- and final parting.

A recent article on charlotteobserver.com tells more of the
story of St. Luke's Episcopal, which is at 315 N Cedar St, Lincolnton.

1 comments:

John Bordsen

About this blog

John Bordsen is the long-time travel editor of The Charlotte Observer. Before moving to Charlotte in 1989, he lived in Wisconsin, Missouri, Kansas and Indiana. His articles and his "Foreign Correspondence" column -- interviews with people who live in countries you may want to visit, or are curious about -- are distributed nationally via the Tribune News Service.